Gender Differences for Constructed-Response Mathematics Items

Abstract

The present study explored gender differences in answers to constructed-response mathematics items. Features relevant and irrelevant to the scoring rubric but possibly related to gender differences were identified by a content expert after a review of the literature. Raters were trained to score the identified features for approximately 500 papers evenly divided across two grade levels and between genders. The papers rated for these features had holistic scores assigned by local teachers using a state-provided rubric. The relationship between these holistic scores, studied features, objective scores, and gender differences was explored through standardized mean differences, correlations, and covariance analyses. The results indicate that rubric-relevant variables were highly predictive of holistic scores and accounted for some of the gender differences, especially at seventh grade. However, the possibly rubric-irrelevant feature of number of words written was statistically significant even when the rubric-relevant features were controlled.